Whispers from a Past Life
by Egyptian Blossom
Summary: Twilight AU; Five years now Bella Nicolai could not fathom how drastically her life had changed. Five years ago she had been Bella Swan and normal. Now she had been stripped of everything that defined her. Such was life in Witness Protection. EXB JXB CxOC
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: Twilight and All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the intellectual property of Stephenie Meyer. I am in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended and will be taken down ASAP if contacted. So please don't sue.

A/N: This completely AU and no Esme. Never much cared for that character. It's a **Carlisle x OC and E x B. Non-Cannon**. **Please be kind I'm truly nervous about my first Twi-Fic.**

Summary: Twilight AU; Five years now Bella Nicolai could not truly fathom how drastically her life had changed. Five years ago she had been Bella Swan was normal. Now she had been stripped of everything that defined her. Such was life in Witness Protection. EXB CXOC

Whispers from a Past Life

Chapter One:

Five years. Even now Bella Nicolai could not truly fathom just how drastically her life had changed. Five years ago she had been Bella Swan of Philadelphia, Pa. Her mother, Renee, had been a pre-school teacher and her father, Charlie, had been a supervisory special agent with the FBI's Organized Crime Unit. Her cousins lived only thirty minuets across the Ben Franklin Bridge and one or more would come for a sleepover every other weekend. She'd been just a normal ten year old girl shuffling, or tripping in her case, through childhood unassumingly. At the time her biggest worry was tripping or something equally foolish in front of Tommy Atkins.

Everything had changed the night of August 10, 2004. That night had been one night her youngest cousin Melinda had come for an extended visit. At sixteen Melinda was by far her closest cousin and had become more of the older sister she'd never had. At the time Bella had been ecstatic about the week long sleepover. She'd set up her room with piles of pillows, blankets, movies, junk food, and the old family movies they enjoyed laughing at over ice cream sundaes. At quarter after seven at night Melinda arrived, two hours later pizza slices in hand the movie marathon had begun, four hours after that at 1:54 am Bella, her mother, father, and cousin lay bleeding on the living room rug; the pungent smell of copper and gun powder lingering in the air. In one moment of clarity she'd closed her eyes, chocked back her agonized sobs, and went limp. It had been a long shoot but it had worked their attacker disappearing into the night.

She'd been able to pry her heavy eyelids open and took in the carnage before her. Her mother and father both limp on the floor by the sofa. Melinda was sprawled on the floor by the staircase, and she was crumpled on her side by the television. The audio of an old war movie her parents had been watching played on but she paid it no mind as painful sobs racked her frame.

With her last bit of strength she'd been able to drag herself across the floor to reach her father's cell phone. Her call to 9-1-1 had been short and as to the point as she could before she descended into unconsciousness. She awoke as she was being tucked into the ambulance her elderly neighbor Mrs. Blake speaking with a uniformed officer. Even through her hazy eyes she could see the tears trailing down her withered features. She whimpered in pain and from the feeling of dread froze in her veins. Edna Blake never cried hadn't even shed a tear when her husband of nearly fifty years passed.

Her quite cry drew the attention of the paramedic attending to her. She would later learn his name was Rick, and bless his heart he'd tried his damndest to assure everything would be fine. Bella knew otherwise. After that time seemed to pass by in a blur of non-descript shapes and colors. She'd been triaged and ushered into an elevator to take her to surgery. They could have wheeled her into traffic she wouldn't have cared less, she was numb trapped in a vortex of nothingness that she couldn't find her way out of. Later the doctors would tell her it was shock. To her it had been the last time she had felt painless whether it be physical or psychological. When she had been anesthetized her surgeon too had taken to reassuring her. If she hadn't been drifting of into unconsciousness she would have rolled her eyes.

Bella awoke in her recovery room early the next morning. At first she had been convinced the past few hours had been a horrible dream, and then the pain and the steady blip of her heart monitor registered in her drug addled brain. Letting out a sob the tears came fast. Across the room she heard a cry of relief. Opening her eyes she saw her Aunt Holly, her hair ragged, deep smudges of mascara under her eyes, and she knew that she didn't want the news she was about to hear.

Turing her eyes away she spotted the second bed and her sleeping cousin just a few feet away. Her Aunt however still had to deliver the news that shattered what little hope she had left. She was an orphan. Melinda suffered a punctured lung and a few broken ribs, but would recover. Her parents hadn't been so lucky her father had been DOA her mother passed in the ER. After that all she had wanted to do was crawl under the covers and forget. Bella however hadn't been given that option. First Dr. Hallsforth had come into to check her shoulder, then came Hayden Hardgrave her father's partner and another Agent had come to take her statement.

Melinda had awoken a few hours later and had done her best to comfort her. She hadn't succeeded but being her surrogate older sister she hadn't expected it to. After three weeks confined to a hospital bed both she and Melinda had been released. Instead of heading to her Aunt Holly's New Jersey home they'd been smuggled out of the hospital, through the ambulance dock, and rushed to the FBI offices in Center City, for a line up.

Every route through Center City had been mapped out in advance and timed for security purposes; Frank Morris, and the Anglin brothers spent less time planning their escape from Alcatraz than the FBI had with a ten minuet car ride. There in the small room behind one way glass she saw the face of the man that had robbed her of her childhood. On the street he was known as Benny 'Kneecaps' Nascimbeni the younger brother of Dante 'Death Toll' Nascimbeni a man who had his hand in more city council members and police officers in his pocket than the USA had states.

Nascimbeni had been a curse word in Swan household since he had taken control of Don 'The Undertaker' Alessandrini's Empire. She'd also heard, while eavesdropping on her parent's private conversations, what men like Nascimbeni did to witnesses. From that moment on fear became a constant emotion one that would haunt her future until Dante drew his last cursed breath. Then came the conversation she had hoped would never come. Waiting in Hayden's office was D.A Sandoval and ADA Nichols.

And so it began with a hear wrenching double funeral, countless meetings with the prosecutor, being forced to relive her agony for the grad jury, suffering through a miss trial due to jury tampering, the endless news reports and finally two years later a verdict. Guilty. Bella had once thought the verdict would bring relief but all it served as was the closing to an agonizing chapter of her life, and the prequel to the next.

The next morning, with a substantial price looming Bella and Melinda's heads courtesy of their friendly neighborhood Mob Boss, they had become wards of the U.S Marshals.

From that moment on Bella Swan and Melinda Nicolson where nothing more than a memory. With new identification in hand and two makeovers later Melinda Noland and her baby cousin Bella began their journey into the unknown. Four random flights and two train rides and a cab ride later they arrived in Galveston, Texas.

At the age of eighteen Melinda had become her guardian. Working as a manager at a museum in The Strand District and attending college online while Bella started at the local middle school. A year later a leak in the Marshal's office had been discovered and they had been uprooted and settled this time in Oahu as two sisters Izzy and Melinda Sanders. Melinda had gotten a job in a posh hotel as a manager and she had begun her new school. That life had lasted two years and Bella had grown to love Hawaii and had even allowed herself to make some new friends.

Yet it became apparent that all good things came to an end. This was why she was now seated on another plane, her third on of the day, gazing out at the night sky wondering when Dante Nascimbeni would finally win their never ending game of cat and mouse.

Leaning her head back she closed her eyes and mentally cursed herself for leaving her I-Pod in her suitcase. Melinda grunted next to her and attempted to snuggle deeper into the leather seat.

Over the past five years Melinda had done her best to make things as easy as her as possible. While Bella had lost the childhood naiveté her cousin had done her best to make sure she had a smooth and enjoyable childhood as possible. Encouraging her to make friends but never pushing the issue when she refused. The one thing she had been adamant about was her joining the school paper. Ever since she was a kid Bella had wanted to be an investigative journalist and Melinda refused to let her abandon that.

Bella knew she had done her best to be a sister, friend, and her shoulder to cry on; but never once had she tried to be her mother and she loved her for it.

While she had been close to her father she and her mother had a special relationship. They'd been more like friends rather than mother and daughter. Day trips to Wildwood, the movie marathons that where held in the living room at a moments notice, her mother's attempting to help her bake cup cakes for the school bake sale one that always ended in a food fight.

It had been some of the best times she'd ever spent…even watching the baseball games with her father. Bella could almost feel the dark ominous clouds of depression roll over her mind, like storm clouds over Elliott Bay. Sighing she snuggled into her pillow and inched the abrasive airline blanket higher on her shoulder and silently prayed for a dreamless slumber.

………

The woods surrounding Mount Hood had always been a favorite hunting ground for Alice. The crisp mountain air laced with the rich smell of the birch tress, wild flowers, and mountain lion. To her left she heard Emmett's rumbling growl and the annoyed roar of a grizzly. Creeping forward she spotted her prey perched on a large boulder nested in the center of Hood Creek. She was just about to leap the short distance to catch her oblivious lunch when her eyes clouded over.

The sequence of pictures passed almost too quickly for even her to decipher and suddenly halted with warning leaving her irritated, confused, and just a bit eager. It was them again. The two women that had been popping up in random visions for the past five years. Even then they had seemed to be cast in shadow and never changing. This time however it had. This time she hadn't seen Edward in the arms of the youngest woman swaying softly, this time she's seen the sign 'Welcome to Mount Hood Village'.

"There here." She whispered to herself.

"Who's here?" a soft voice, laced with a light southern drawl, asked. She could feel the waves of confusion emanating from Jasper. Turing to her husband she smiled to and was happy to see him relax his stance a bit. "I'm not sure yet Jazz."

Frowning he stepped forward pressing a kiss to her forehead. "The same vision again?" he asked sending out a soothing wave of calm. She smiled; it was times like this she loved having an empath as a husband.

"Yeah, but it changed. There here Jasper. And I have no idea why." She said stomping her foot in frustration. The mountain lion she had been stalking turned and hissed in their direction before scampering off. Growling she leaned against the trunk of a tree and pouted. Something was coming she could feel it in her bones and nothing irritated her more than flying blind into a potentially hazardous situation. But it had something to do with Edward and he was not at all happy with that fact. The first time she had her vision Edward had peaked into her mind and saw enough to send him into an angry rant.

The smell of cinnamon and eucalyptus wafted to her nose and she began mentally reciting the _Iliad_ in Greek. The last thing she needed was a broody Edward. A moment later Edward appeared through the thicket a puzzled expression on his face.

…………

The soft knock on the door jam drew Bella's attention away from her beloved Mr. Darcy. Melinda stood in the door way already dressed in her pjs holding a box of pizza and two sodas.

She offered a weak smile and shuffled in and plopped down on the bed resting her back against the foot board. "Brought you something to eat." Opening the box she smiled. Hawaiian style pizza. In Oahu it had become their weekly ritual to go down to the small pizza parlor near their home to have the best pizza the island had to offer. Between the both of them they could polish of an entire extra large pie and order another to take home for a late night snack. Now it was supposed too offer her a small reminder of the only other place she had considered home.

Setting her soda on her night stand she pulled out of slice. "So how you like your room?" Bella sighed and glanced around the small room the walls where a light buttercup yellow with a hand painted swirling white boarder. Gauzy white lace curtains with embroidered daisies and sunflowers hung from the windows. Out side her window was a large ancient birch tree.

"It's nice." She shrugged and nibbled at her slice. Melinda shifted clasping her soda can between her feet. "Good pizza but nowhere near Aukai's caliber." Bella grinned at the thought of the heavy set Hawaiian man. He'd been sweet to them always coming out of the kitchen and sharing a basket of bread sticks with them. He had reminded her a lot of her grandpa Swan.

"So excited about your first day of high school?" she questioned as picking a chuck of ham off her seconded slice and popping it in her mouth. Bella shot her a look that simply state 'have you finally lost it?' as she popped the tab on her soda. Melinda chuckled and swiped one of her pillows and resting it behind her back. "Yeah I never thought it was such a momentous occasion either, but your mom did." Bella winced slightly at that. Her cousin had been bringing up her mother more and more over the past few weeks. Before they had skirted around that accept on her parent's birthdays and anniversary. Neither however where approaching and truth be told it was still to painful.

Melinda shifted nervously and fiddled with the tab of her soda can. "Last week when we where packing up I found my old hospital bag. Somehow something of Aunt Renee's got mixed up with my things." Bella tensed for a moment, setting her pizza down on the box lid. She wracked her brain trying to remember what of her mother's could have possibly been misplaced. Both of her parents had been buried with their wedding bands. Melinda stood and hesitated before pulling a necklace out of her pajama pocket.

There dangling from her cousins finger was her mother's most prized piece of jewelry. A small quarter sized oval shaped locket engraved with swirling ivy and hearts. It had been Renee's mother's who had passed it down on her mother's sixteenth birthday. Tears flowed down her face as she gingerly reached forward and took the delicate chain in hand.

"I thought you would like it for your first day. I know Aunt Renee would want this."

A breathless "Than you." Escaped her as her cousin took it from her trembling hands and clasped it around her neck. Gathering up the leftovers and trash Melinda headed for the door only to pause. "Remember to set your alarm, kid. We've got stop by the administrative office early and I need to be at the lodge by eight thirty." Bella nodded as the door closed softly.

Clasping the warm sterling silver in her hand she mechanically set her alarm, flicked off the bed side lamp and pulled up the covers and quickly fell into an exhausted sleep.


	2. Chapter 2

A/N: I want to thank everyone that read this. I'd been throwing this plot line around for weeks so let's keep rolling on. Further more I don't think Shadow Bridge Lodge exsists in Oregon I pretty sure I made it up.

Chapter Two:

Growing up the way she had Bella learned to loath the first day at a new school. She had been the new girl enough to know what to expect. The whispers, curious stares, and interrogations. Being forced to spend the day carefully recalling her new factious life with a practiced ease as not to blow her cover. While avoiding in depth questioning was not an easy task and her avoidance sometimes came off a rude, it couldn't be helped and she made no apologies for it. Before they had been relocated to Oahu Bella had never seen the point of making friends. Choosing to simply write for the school paper and go home. Friends asked far too many questions and expected her to share secrets and amusing anecdotes about her childhood.

Bella could do neither. Sighing she glared out the window of the administrative office at the endless forest. Bella had always loved the woods. As a kid her parents had taken her up to the Catskills to a small cabin surrounded by vast untamed wilderness. To her the rustic land represented freedom. Now in a true twist of sadistic irony she was surrounded by a lush sprawling forest, but now she was trapped by rules and a constant un-abating fear of discovery.

"Ah you must be Bella!" an irritatingly chipper voice gushed. Bella flinched and beside her Melinda glowered. Morning people where evil creatures. Before she could bit out a scathing retort the chipper woman turned toward her cousin. "Oh you must be Melinda. I'm Mrs. Deleon." The older woman grinned and ushered them over toward the desk. Not once noticing the frowns of annoyance from her resentful audience she continued. "Okay Bella, here is your locker number and combination, school identification, and…" she paused frowned and spun in a circle, presumably searching for something…she hoped, her neon red hair flying reminding Bella of a dog chasing its tail. Glancing at her equally stupefied cousin she swallowed a mocking giggle.

"Aha!" she grinned holding up a yellow sweatshirt a cougar head superimposed over the schools moniker. "This is for you. A gift from the welcoming committee of C.J Sanders High. Go cougars." She curled her fingers into claws and growled at them. "Oh dear God." Melinda muttered shaking her head. If Mrs. Deleon heard her she didn't show it as she shoved the sweatshirt in her arms and snatched her course list out of her hands. "Okay you have Coach Jameson for homeroom. Follow this corridor down to 'A' hall it's the second door on you left." Handing back the wrinkled paper Bella offer a tight polite smile and followed her cousin into the congested hall. The throng of students immediately paused their inane discussions to stare at the new girl before beginning their whispering again this time with a new topic. Bella rolled her eyes. Melinda snorted. "Very subtle." She remarked. Bella sighed and so it began.

…………….

Groaning Bella collapsed into the desk of her first period honors history class. Homeroom had been hell. There she had met the quintessential stereotypical peppy teenagers Mike Newton and Jessica Stanley. Both way to happy for the morning hours, which in her household was sacrilege and to top it off instead of letting her submerge herself in the romantic and handsomeness that was Mr. Darcy; they had been way to nosey. She had barely managed to escape them in the hall. Sighing she cracked open the worn novel as students started to trickle in.

"Belle!" a jubilant voice called out making her cringe. Cautiously glancing up she found a grinning Mike, Bella was sure if he was a dog he'd be wagging his tail and trying to lick her face. "Bella, its Bella you hermaphroditic weasel." she muttered under her breath which Mike didn't appear to hear, Bella frowned she could have sworn she heard laughter, apparently what little sanity she had left stayed in Hawaii. Without waiting for an invitation or a reply he plopped down in the vacant seat next to her.

"So I was thinking," he began and she bit back the snide comment of "Really, hope you didn't hurt yourself," and simply arched her eyebrows. He however didn't get to finish his sentence however when a loud booming voice interrupted them. "Hey Newton, your in my seat." Bella looked up and bit back a startled gasp. Standing before her was a man she was sure had just tumbled off Mount Olympus. He was tall probably about six foot six, will laughing honey eyes, deep dimples, large bulging muscles and dark tousled hair. He'd put Hercules to shame. Mentaly shaking herself from her stuper she glanced at Mike's pale petrified features and coukdn't stifle her snicker.

Mike apparently didn't hear her apparently to concerened with the reason for his life flashing before his eyes, Hercules did and a smile ticked at the corner of his mouth.

"S-sorry Emmett." Mike stuttered snatching up his things and scampering away to the far side of the classroom. Ah so he did have a name.

Emmett reclaimed his seat and streched his long legs out in the isle. "So you're the new girl." He drawled out with a cheeky grin. Bella rolled her eyes and givining up the hope of finishing her book she closed it and turned her dark eyes on him. "Gee nothing gets by you." Bella nearly winced at the heavy sarcams that spilt into her tone. Most people misinterpreated her sense of humor. Emmett however chuckled merrily.

"My family just moved here in August." He interjected. Bella nodded.

"So I guess that makes you the new guy." She smirked.

He opened his mouth to proably toss a out something snide of his own when Mr. Wilkins called the class to order. The course sylibis was distrubuted and she wrinkled her nose in distaste. She had expected more from a world history course. In her previous classess, and the endless books her cousin had lying about, she had learned about the fall of the Roman Empire, the rich culture and history of Ancient Egypt, and the brave battle of Thermopylae between the Spartans and the Persain Empire. If her cousin saw this she'd pitch a fit. It was something they both had in common. Their passion for history bordering on fanatical.

Folding the paper she shoved it into her book. As Mr. Wilkins droned on about the sylibis she glanced around the classroom, confident she could navigate this course in her sleep. Emmett seemed to feel the same way as he drummed his fingers on his desk and began making a paper air plane out of his own sylibs.

Mr. Wilikins didn't seem to pleased and scowled at the unapologetic teen. Bella snickered to herself earning a grin and wink from Emmett. He was a younger version of her eldest cousin Ryan. When he was younger he had been a jolly, flippant, jokester. Ryan would be nearly thrity by now. She couldn't help but wonder if he had settled down or if he was still the consimate bachlor she remembered. Six years ago he'd been hoping from job to job trying to find his niche. Melinda and Ryan were polar opposites always had been. While Ryan was flighty, Melinda was stable and a bit cautious. But she had come to miss his carefree spontanious nature.

Her life was dictated by rules her dreams of being an investigative report for the _Times_ was nothing more than a pot dream anymore. To actually work for at the paper she would have to be able to get anywhere near the east coast.

A low 'psst' and a slight tap on the shoulder startled her. Glancing behind her at the boy behind her she arched an annoyed brow. A slip of folded crumpled paper was thrust into her face. Snatching it she glanced down the name, Belle, which she asumed was her name scrawled sloppily across the top. Unfolding the note she read the equally sloppy writing on the inside.

_Belle, _

_As I was saying before Cullen interupted._ Cullen? That must be Emmett. _I'll meet you in the caf at lunch the rest of the gang wants to meet you!_

_Mike._

Bella growled under her breath and crumbled the note and flicking it on the floor. She was going to pummle the presumptious little twerp.

………….

Melinda sighed shifting uncomfortably in the hard plastic monstrosity mascaradring as a chair. A disgruntled sighed drew her attention the reason for her improto trip to the hospital. Mrs. Ethal Potter scowled cradling her wrist agaisnt her abdomin muttering about blue haird bitties and cheating scoundrels. Never had she heard of a Bingo hall brawl. When she had arrived at Shadow Bridge Lodge she had been in awe it was a gourgous sprawling hotel nestled back in the tree line surrounding Mount Hood, only seven miles outside of the village. The beatiful snow caped mountians not far off in the distance. While there where many resorts within a fifteen mile area the lodge offered a large glass domed ballroom that was rented out for weddings and other local happenings.

The most noteable event being the homecoming dance, which as manager she would be forced to shaparone, and today's Bingo tornament.

All in all she had thought it would be an easy first day. She'd been wrong. One accusation of cheating, she wasn't even aware one could cheat at Bingo, and the place had errupted into caous. Mrs. Potter had been the only causalty getting smaked across the wrist with a cane. She was a sweet woman but quite sarcastic and blunt.

" This bites." Melinda's eyebrows shot up in surprise.

"Could I get you anything Mrs. Potter?" she questioned tugging on the hem of her burgandy sweater dress. Despreat to escape the small room and the seething granny on the exam table. Ethal pursed her lips in thought.

"An orange juice would be wonderful dear." Smiling Melinda slipped out the door of the examroom and ran face first into a stone chest. The scent of sandlewood attacked her sences. Cold hands gripped her arms and she glanced up embaraced.

"I'm so sorry." A gasp lodged in her throat as she gazed up at the angel before her. He was amazing slicked back golden locks, perfect features, honey eyes, and a toe curling half smile. Never in her life had Melinda swooned, she wasn't the type, apparently that had all changed. She was screwed.

A/N: Edward next chap.


End file.
